Haiti - Humanitarian : Maternal health remains underfunded
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) inform that the maternal health remains poorly funded. UNFPA has developed a response plan with $4.7 million to cover the reproductive health needs of 546,000 women and girls of reproductive age in the affected areas in six months. Only 24% has been funded so far.
UNFPA expresses extreme concern about the wellbeing of Haiti’s pregnant women. Its teams have witnessed the suffering of pregnant women and girls in the past few days in Grand’Anse and Nippes. This includes pregnant women in shelters who do not take the nutritive supplement they receive to support their pregnancy due to a lack of food.
Let's recall that before the hurricane, two-thirds of women gave birth at home in Haiti and maternal mortality rates werethe highest in the western hemisphere (359 deaths per 100 000 live births). Home birth delivery rate is expected to increase after the hurricane, given that some maternity units have been affected. For example, in Beaumont, the only hospital, Hôpital La Providence, collapsed.
Summary of the UNFPA Humanitarian Response Plan :
Provision of 261 reproductive health kits to cover the needs of 390,000 people in the 4 departments most affected by the hurricane;
Deployment of 10 midwives in the departments of Grand'Anse and Nippes to strengthen the care of pregnant women and girls. These midwives will run mobile clinics to provide reproductive health services to affected populations ;
Purchase of delivery beds and cribs and deployment of obstetricians in referral hospitals for the management of Caesarean sections;
Acquisition of 2,000 "newborn kits" for the most vulnerable mothers and girls ;
Acquisition of more than 2,000 Zika prevention kits for pregnant women ;
Distribution of several thousand hygiene, cooking and food kits to the most vulnerable women and girls ;
Ongoing distribution of kits for the medical care of GBV survivors / sexual violence.
